MORGANTOWN — What happens, Trina Wafle asked Morgantown City Council, when Mon Power closes the Fort Martin Power Station in 2035?
If Wafle and a working group of like-minded individuals have their way, the city will be well ensconced in the emerging hydrogen energy movement before that happens.
To that end, council authorized City Manager Kim Haws to apply for participation in H2 Twin Cities, a global initiative that connects cities around the world in order to explore and deploy clean hydrogen solutions.
But to be considered, cities on different continents must apply as pairs, or twins. And time is short. Applications are due to the international Clean Energy Ministerial by March 18.
Wafle, assistant director at the West Virginia University Energy Institute, said researchers at WVU and the National Energy Technology Laboratory suggested Namie, a town in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan as a possible match for Morgantown.
“They are moving very aggressively toward a hydrogen economy, in large part because of the earthquake that damaged the nuclear reactor that caused the meltdown,” Wafle said, referencing the 2011 tsunami that damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The five-year program would cost the city about $20,000 annually. That money would fund things like personnel exchanges, online conferencing and the drafting of a plan that would help move Morgantown into the hydrogen economy.
“If we have hydrogen. If we’ve met people in the field, hydrogen developers, maybe we can do what I’m observing along the Ohio River, where the Ormet aluminum smelter went down and that whole area is now being redeveloped for renewables and hydrogen,” Wafle said.
While Wafle noted the byproduct of hydrogen as an energy source is water, she also conceded that hydrogen production is dependent on natural gas.
“Currently, the way hydrogen is made commercially right now is called methane gas reforming, so you’re using natural gas,” she said. “It’s not an entirely clean process yet commercially, but it will move in that direction.”
And moving it in that direction is where she and other researchers come in.
“Part of the neat thing about this is we have expertise at NETL and expertise at WVU in this area that isn’t necessarily in other places,” Mayor Jenny Selin said. “So this is something where Morgantown has a definite role to play.”
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